It began with rain. No storm. No thunderstorm. Just rain. Soft drops fell from the sky, landing on flowers, leaves, and the pathways of Sparkland.

The first drop landed on a Sparkle. Nothing happened. The Sparkle simply kept glowing. The second drop landed on another, then the third. Soon, tiny lights were sparkling everywhere between the raindrops, as if someone had forgotten to turn the stars off.

The rain kept falling. Somewhere among the flowers, water began to collect. At first, there was only a little, but then there was more. A small puddle appeared on one of the paths, and the puddle became a stream. The stream seemed to have no idea where it was going, so it simply flowed straight through the meadow. Nobody stopped it.

Under a tree, a pond appeared. Then another. A Sparkle rested on its surface. A wave came, passed straight through the Sparkle, and continued on its way. The Sparkle remained, still glowing. Then another drop of rain landed on it, and once again, nothing changed.

Sparkland apparently had other things to worry about. Like making even more water.

A seashell suddenly appeared in the middle of the meadow. White, clean, and a little out of place. By the next morning, there were twelve.

Between the flowers, coral began to grow. Seaweed swayed beneath a tree whose roots were still completely dry. A small fish swam through the air. It disappeared behind a bush, came out the other side, and simply kept swimming.

Later, there were three fish. Then seven. Eventually, the sky was filled with tiny silver shapes. Nobody asked when the sky had become an ocean. Perhaps the sky itself had not noticed yet.

The Transformation Begins

Then came the cloud.

It was bigger than the others and grew larger and larger until it no longer looked particularly much like a cloud. Two dark spots appeared, a dorsal fin took shape, and eventually there was a tail.

The cloud swam through the sky above Sparkland.

A shark.

Made of cloud.

It moved slowly through the sky and seemed completely unimpressed by everything happening around it. Then it opened its mouth, and a small blue shark fell out. For a moment, it seemed to be simply falling before stopping in midair, turning around, and swimming away. A trail of water and Sparkles lingered behind it.

Nobody commented on this. That would probably have been difficult to explain anyway.

The rain grew heavier. The water continued to rise. The meadow became a shoreline, the shoreline became a lagoon, and eventually the lagoon became an ocean.

Flowers disappeared beneath the surface. Trees. Paths.

And then something began to emerge.

First, there was a column. Then another. An arch, a staircase, a wall. Stone settled upon stone, as if a city were slowly remembering that it had once been there.

Towers rose from the water. Bridges connected ruins that had not even been ruins yesterday. Domes rested beneath the surface, glowing in the blue light. Coral spread across ancient walls while pearls appeared between the stones. And deep below, wide streets opened into a city that nobody had ever built.

Atlantis.

Perhaps.

Or something that simply remembered it.

Sparkland had apparently decided that the two could be the same thing.

The Spark remained in the middle of all that blue. The water did not reach it, the waves seemed to have no effect on it, and it almost felt as though the ocean had never even considered trying to touch it.

Around it, the Sparkles drifted through the water. Some floated above the surface, others below it, while some moved between the ruins. One slipped straight through a column. Another came to rest beneath a dome. None of them seemed to be in any particular hurry.

This was still Sparkland.

Just a little wetter.

When Sparkland Becomes Sharkland

Then the last piece of land disappeared.

The ocean was everywhere. Atlantis lay beneath the surface, coral glowed among the ruins, and Sparkles drifted through the ancient streets. The Spark stood above it all, while the shark-shaped cloud continued to swim through the sky above the water.

Then the rain stopped.

The light changed. Golden sunlight slipped through the clouds and spread across the water. For a moment, Sparkland looked like a place that had always been this way.

As if the ocean had never been new. As if the ruins had always rested beneath the waves. As if the Sparkles had always glowed between the towers. And as if the shark had always been swimming through the sky.

Then a small wooden sign appeared.

It stood on an ancient stone staircase. Nobody had put it there. It was simply there.

The letters shimmered.

SHARKLAND

And suddenly, everything fit together. The rain, the ocean, the ruins, the coral, the Spark, the Sparkles, and, of course, the shark.

Only one thing was missing.

Someone was sitting on one of the ancient staircases. Small and blue, she was looking out across the ocean. She looked down at the towers, then at the Spark, and finally at the Sparkles slowly drifting past her.

She blinked once, then twice.

Sparkland said nothing. It did not need to.

The world was complete. The ocean was here, Atlantis was here, the sky was here, and the shark was here. And finally, she was here too.

Gawr Gura looked around before turning her attention to the little sign.

SHARKLAND

She tilted her head slightly. For one tiny moment, everything was completely silent. The Spark shimmered, the Sparkles danced through the water, and above them, the shark swam through the clouds.

Gura looked up, then at the ocean, and finally back at the sky.

Sparkland knew why.

The Spark knew.

The ocean knew.

Maybe even the shark knew.

Gura waited.

Nothing happened.

She blinked once more.

And finally, Sparkland answered.

Because shark.

Gura looked around, and a small smile appeared on her face.

“Shark.”

Then she jumped into the water.

Beneath the sparkling waves, Sharkland began to live. The Spark remained, the Sparkles remained, and Atlantis remained. The ancient streets slowly filled with movement, the water carried the light through the ruins, and between the towers, a new world began to take shape. It felt strange, but at the same time, it felt completely natural, as though it had been waiting for this moment all along.

Above the ocean, the cloud shaped like a shark was still swimming through the sky. Nobody seemed bothered by it. Perhaps it simply belonged here now. Perhaps it had always belonged here.

And maybe that was the moment when a change became a Resonance.

Sparkland had not disappeared. It had simply changed.

It was still Sparkland.

But now, it was also Sharkland.

And above the sparkling ocean, the shark continued to swim through the sky, as if it had always been there. 🦈